Ukraine: Religious Buildings
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) places of worship and (b) religious sites (i) damaged and (ii) destroyed in Ukraine since February 2022; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of contributing to international efforts to (A) restore and (B) protect those sites.
Answered by Stephen Doughty
We are deeply disturbed by the impact of Russia's illegal war on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), and the damage done to places of worship and religious significance. As of April 2025, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has verified damage to 149 religious sites. The UK remains committed to the protection of cultural heritage sites jeopardised by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's reconstruction, starting with early recovery measures, remains a key priority. We have committed up to £283 million in bilateral assistance for 2025/2026 to fund humanitarian, energy, stabilisation, recovery and reconstruction programmes. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) International Cultural Heritage Protection (ICHP) Programme continues to fund protection of cultural heritage. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, DCMS's ICHP has supported Ukraine funded NGO 'Blue Shield' to carry out war-crime investigations, capacity building programmes for the Office of the Prosecutor General and funding the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Heritage Crime Task Force in Ukraine.
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